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On Appropriate Anger

“It’s not what your enemies do. It is what your friends do”…Hannah Arendt

I seldom seethe with anger. While never have been accused of possessing Buddha-like serenity, I don’t think of myself as an angry person. However, our current events would try the serenity of the Buddha himself. I picture Siddhartha raising his voice in outrage and hurling stones in frustration.

I’m angry in what we’re doing and not doing—not simply the political parties but the silence of “We the People.”

I see many homeless on our streets. Some are mentally ill, others self medicating their conditions with drugs and alcohol; still others are homeless from losing a job, getting a divorce or having had an illness. Little is being done to ameliorate their situation.

Our streets and jails have become our mental health programs? Liberals made it impossible to force meds on people. Conservatives defunded our mental hospitals which were often only warehouses. And we all agreed to fight group homes in our neighborhoods.This is malign neglect, by our leaders and ourselves.
How do we tolerate high school graduation rates that go from 98% for affluent white children to 80% for Latino students and 72.6% for African Americans? Without de Jure segregation, we have separate and unequal education.

How can we not be angry at the neglect of the needs of our fellow citizens? Don’t we know that depriving people of education and healthcare will deny them the ability to become our customers?

How can I not be angry at the vacuum of integrity in the Republican Party—a party that once stood for sexual morality. And even when I didn’t agree with them, this seemed to be a core principle? How can I not feel angry that deficits that mattered 14 months ago, don’t matter today? How can I not be angry when the “party of patriotism” cast willfully blind eyes at Russian interference in our elections?

How can I not be outraged that political wars, I thought won, roar back as clean water regulations are rolled back, clean air standards eroded and banking regulations weakened? How can I tolerate the smearing and persecution of immigrants, while White Supremacists and neo-Nazis are defended by “our” President as having some “very fine people?” Meanwhile, he says that peacefully protesting by kneeling is “disgusting” and protestors “should be fired.”

How can I feel emotionally centered when we insult the leaders of Mexico, Australia, England and Canada, while remaining silent concerning religious nationalism, authoritarianism and anti-Semitism growing in Hungary and Poland? How can my sense of optimism not be shattered when democracies are replaced with “dictators for life” in China, Russia, Venezuela, Egypt and Saudi Arabia? Nor are my anxieties assuaged by the President remarking on Xi’s coup,“Maybe we’ll give that a shot some day.”

The sex scandals don’t interest me. From George Washington, with signs all over the east saying, “Washington slept here,” sexual morality has not marked the lives of our Presidents: Not Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, not even Nixon (though difficult to imagine). Certainly not Bill Clinton. But, I don’t give a damn about Trump’s private immorality—that’s between him and his present wife, Melancholia.

I’m much more concerned with his public immorality and his only occasional relationship (not with women but) with truth.

I’m angry with our Congress—the most constipated governing body in the world, where nothing moves and where majority rule means nothing. I’m disgusted that our solons make political choices in their interests and not our nation’s. Congressional dysfunction is bi-partisan.

Lest you think this is simply an anti-Trump screed, I’m also angry at Democrats and Progressives. And I promise I would attack their leaders if I knew who the hell they were. But I don’t! I’m pretty confident it isn’t Hillary or Bernie. Not Chuck or Nancy. Obama has disappeared. Biden would love to be relevant, but isn’t. Is it Senators Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris? It sure isn’t Keith Ellison or Tom Perez.

I’d attack the vision of the Democrats and Progressives if I knew what it was. I’ve a sense of what they’re against, but opposition isn’t a position and “NO!” isn’t a program. The Bible wisely states, “Without a vision the people perish.” The same is true for a political party or movement.

I’m really angry at the craven Democrats and Progressives concerning blatant anti-Semitism. The left has matched Trump’s “fine people on both sides” with horrifying silence and mealy-mouthed excuses for blatant anti-Semitism from segments of the left. This isn’t just about Linda Sarsour and her visibility at progressive events—many of whose causes I’ve supported (in the past). This is also about Keith Ellison’s lying abut his relationship with Louis Farrakhan. This is about Tamika Mallory, who has a well documented, and largely positive, part in Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, making excuses for her relationship with Louis Farrakhan. She attended an event in February when Farrakhan spewed amazingly poisonous anti-Semitic vitriol.

She defended her right to be a part of The Nation of Islam, and I wouldn’t dispute that right. Where she fails, and many progressives fail, is in strongly refuting Farrakhan’s recent quotes: “The powerful Jews are my enemy…and Farrakhan (referring to himself) by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off the Satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through.”

I’m so tired of hearing that the Democrats don’t stand for anything. How about clean water and air. How about preserving our national parks and monuments. How about climate change. How about gun safety. I don’t much care about Trump’s peccadillos, but he is the male version of a Trollope. How about dismantling the ACA with no valid options. The GOP tearing down banking reforms. There is no moral equivalence.

Jack

Angry, aren’t you? It is a shame more are not as angry and vocal about our nation’s current situation. You should also get angry about the atheist organizations that are trying, and in some cases succeeding, to remove all vestiges of religion from our nation. Madeline would be proud at the movement she started.

Don’t ever forget WE elected those to represent us; we just failed to pick those with any character or responsibility to the people. The childish way of controlling the game is to take your ball and go home and the game is never played. No improvements will ever be made when the parties will not even LISTEN to the other side, because they are afraid they might hear some workable ideas.

Mike

Very well said. I could not agree with you more. I am disheartened by the fact that “we the peoole” are allowing this travesty to continue. I listed to DT this afternoon making a speech and I was ready to throw up. We need a little that can bring civility back to our political process as well as every day life.